Emissions disclosure as a business virtue

Some companies are taking the plunge and submitting reports on how much carbon they emit.

Source: Leslie Kaufman, New York Times

12/29/2009

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Cupping their hands near holes drilled for cable routing, workers at the Boeing Company's four-acre data processing site near Seattle noticed this year that air used to keep the computers cool was seeping through floor openings.

Mindful of the company's drive to slash electricity consumption by 25%, they tucked insulation into holes there and at five similar sites. The resulting savings are projected at $55,000, or some 685,000 kWh of electricity a year.

Yet Boeing's goal is not just to save money. The hope is to keep pace with other companies that have joined in a vast global experiment in tracking the carbon dioxide emissions generated by industry.

Boeing and other enterprises are voluntarily doing what some might fiercely resist being forced to do: submitting detailed reports on how much they emit, largely through fossil fuel consumption, to a central clearinghouse.

The information flows to the Carbon Disclosure Project , a small nonprofit organization based in London that sifts through the numbers and generates snapshots by industry sectors in different nations.